Far Ahead of Curve, a 6-Year-Old Thrills a Nation

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Rashid al-Dhaheri and his racing kart in Abu Dhabi. Known as Little Alonso, after the racer Fernando Alonso, he is seen as the region’s great driving hope.CreditCreditAndrew Testa for The New York Times

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — On a sparkling morning here in December, I stepped into a red-and-black driving suit, slipped on a helmet and eased my car up to the start line alongside this country’s most famous motorsports star.

After a pause, we took off, the gap between our vehicles quickly widening as my opponent whizzed ahead, bits of tire rubber streaking the concrete track as he squealed into each turn. I gunned the engine of my go-kart and tried to keep up, but it was hopeless. After one lap, he was half a track in front; by the time I finished my second lap, he was nearly done with his third.

It was a rout, and afterward, my adversary, Rashid al-Dhaheri, was asked to offer advice on areas of improvement. He thought for a second and said, “You need to go faster.” Then he giggled and sipped his juice.

That is more impressive than it sounds, particularly when one considers that Rashid is 6 years old. He has been enamored of motorsports since he went to a Formula One race with his father in 2011 and stood, captivated, in front of the Ferrari team’s garage for the better part of three days.

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Rashid at practice last month in Abu Dhabi. He became enamored of the sport after attending a Formula One race in 2011.CreditAndrew Testa for The New York Times

“We came out of that weekend knowing what he wanted,” Ali said.

What Rashid wanted was to drive. By the time he turned 4, he was working with a full-time coach. At 5, Rashid was a star, winning youth go-kart races and building a following among fans here who have long enjoyed motorsports (it is one of the most popular spectator sports in the region) but have never had a homegrown driver to call their own.

Now, at 6, Rashid is well known by his nickname, Little Alonso — after the racing star Fernando Alonso — and is seen by many as Arabia’s great driving hope.

In other words, our head-to-head race at the Al Forsan International Sports Resort that day was not at all like, say, playing basketball with a friend’s child because Rashid’s whipping was so comprehensive, so thorough, that no one could ever suspect that the adult had let him win.

To the contrary: Rashid slipped into the corners with aplomb, expertly skidding without bumping the walls before accelerating through the straightaways without hesitation, showcasing a few of the qualities that separate him from other racers who are often older by a year or more. Despite the fact that he is in first grade and has a bedroom painted in red and white (the Ferrari team colors) and still, occasionally, takes naps, Rashid’s skills on the track are obvious.

Last year he traveled to Italy to participate in the youth karting circuit there, a much stiffer test than the thin (or often nonexistent) fields he faces at events in the United Arab Emirates or surrounding countries. In his first Italian race, he finished third out of 30 youth drivers despite driving in the rain for the first time. In one of his next races, he won.

Racing at a young age is not altogether uncommon — many Formula One drivers, and several in Nascar, got their start in go-karts — but few children do so as young as Rashid, and motorsports participation rates in the U.A.E., as with many sports, are particularly low.

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Rashid with his father, Ali. “He’s just a kid who likes to drive,” Ali said. This year, they plan to travel to Italy often for top competition.CreditAndrew Testa for The New York Times

Ali said he was not overly concerned about Rashid’s safety, in part because the international governing body for racing restricts the size of the engines that can be used by certain age groups and to a greater extent because of Rashid’s approach to driving (“I like to let people bump each other and then go by them,” he said). Serious crashes are rare, and Rashid has avoided even minor ones so far, he said.

This year, Rashid and his father plan to travel to Italy as many as a dozen times so that Rashid can have as many opportunities as possible against top competition. Ali said Rashid, who attends an American school in Abu Dhabi, would miss only a day or two of school for each trip.

The travel does not faze Rashid (he enjoys watching TV on the family’s iPad), though he has had to come up with ways to mollify his mother, who “wants me to stay home with her,” he said.

“I have a trick,” he said, his eyes wide. “I tell her, ‘I will be back tomorrow.’ That makes her feel better. Then the next day I call her and I tell her, ‘Our plane got stuck!’ ” He nodded. “It works!”

According to Ali, Rashid trains two or three times a week at the track, working with a coach, Paul Chatenay. Chatenay counsels Rashid on all facets of his racing, whether it is helping him tweak his kart’s dynamics or analyzing the timing of his laps.

Rashid welcomes the instruction like a seasoned athlete. If one could not see Rashid’s tiny shoes (he is only about 4 feet tall), one might not even guess how young he is. In the pit area, he used racing vernacular with Ali and Chatenay, dropping in words like “chassis”and “apex” while critiquing the feel of a kart. His driving suit has a variety of sponsor patches on it (about a half-dozen are on board), and his personal website makes clear that he is seeking more.

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Rashid discussing race strategy with a coach, Paul Chatenay, who counsels him on all facets of his racing, whether it is helping him tweak his kart’s dynamics or analyzing the timing of his laps.CreditAndrew Testa for The New York Times

Those aspirations are balanced against the reality: Rashid is 6 (“Six and a half!” he declares) and still very much a boy. When he and Chatenay sat together to examine a map of the track’s turns and discuss strategy, Rashid sat on Chatenay’s lap. When they walked down a steep flight of stairs, Chatenay held the young driver’s hand. When Rashid rides to and from the track for training, he does so in the back of Ali’s car — and in a booster seat.

“He doesn’t care about any of the bigger-picture stuff,” Ali said. “He’s just a kid who likes to drive.”

Ali, who works as an executive at a national oil company, added that Rashid’s grounded approach to driving had helped the family keep the proper perspective. Driving seeps into just about everything Rashid does — he had his fourth birthday party at Ferrari World; his favorite character from the movie “Cars 2” is the racecar Francesco Bernoulli — but there is also a recognition that more goes into it than simply showing up and turning the wheel.

“You need to know math because in cars, it is important to know how big something is,” Rashid said at one point, hopping up and down on his father’s knee. “You also need to learn time because you need to know when to go to the track.”

He added, “We are learning time in school now.”

There are, of course, no guarantees about the future for Rashid. Chatenay said Rashid had graduated to a 60-c.c. engine (which can go up to about 60 miles per hour) and, in a typical progression, might jump to a 125-c.c. engine around age 11 or 12 before joining an adult driving series around 14. From there, he would have to work his way through the lower-tier circuits of Formula 4, Formula 3, GP 2 and, finally, Formula One.

Max Verstappen of the Netherlands became the youngest Formula One driver when he competed at age 17 in October.

“Starting so young will give Rashid a tiny, tiny edge up on people who start later,” Chatenay said. “But in a sport where hundredths of a second are the difference, that can be enough.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B13 of the New York edition with the headline: Far Ahead of Curve, a 6-Year-Old Thrills a Nation. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe